Young taken to court for 'very trivial reasons'

Youngsters are being brought to court for trivial offences such as stealing half a sausage roll, a marble and a nail worth 1p and causing criminal damage by running through a hedge, a senior youth crime official said yesterday.

Martin Spragg, head of the Youth Offending Service in Devon, said taking action over such offences was clogging the system, giving young people criminal records and stopping probation officers from helping serious offenders.

Mr Spragg criticised the way "referral orders" were being used. Referral orders, which have been available to the courts for the past five years, involve the youngster working with a youth offender panel for up to 12 months and often meeting the victim of the crime.

He said: "The total cost per child could be up to £10,000 for longer orders. In Devon alone there were 367 referral orders last year. We are drowning in these things. And well over half were three-month orders for very, very trivial offences."

Forces like Devon and Cornwall are giving youngsters aged 10-18 two warnings before taking them to court. Mr Spragg said: "The system says two strikes and you are out - two chances to misbehave in eight years. It's really not enough."

He blamed Home Office regulations, saying there was very little discretion.

He said the youngsters who were taken to court for stealing half a sausage roll, a marble and 1p nail were each given three-month referral orders.